1. Field of the Invention
present invention generally relates to liquid draining devices and, more particularly, is concerned with a device having an upper interior funnel and a lower interior drip guide for draining remaining liquid from a nearly empty narrow neck container to another like container.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many containers which hold various types of liquids often have narrow necks leading to a single top opening. When these narrow neck containers are nearly empty, it is often difficult to completely drain the liquid from them so as to avoid waste or environmental contamination upon disposal of the container. One technique for removal of liquid from a nearly empty container is simply to invert the container upside down and to allow gravity to drain any remaining liquid into another upright container. A variety of devices have been proposed over the years for draining liquids from one container to another generally in the above mentioned fashion.
Representative examples of liquid draining devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,773,521 to Persson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,028,032 to Jones, U.S. Pat. No. 3,266,533 to McHale, U.S. Pat. No. 3,615,150 to Indrunas, U.S. Pat. No. 3,620,267 to Seablom, U.S. Pat. No. 3,945,617 to Callery, U.S. Pat. No. 3,963,063 to Pascarella, U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,477 to Sebalos, U.S. Pat. No. 4,347,879 to Blaser and U.S. Pat. No. 4,454,897 to Valiant. All of these prior art devices secure the inverted top open end of a nearly empty container over the upright top open end of another container so as to permit gravity to drain any remaining liquid from the nearly empty inverted container into the upright container.
A common element in many of these devices is a hollow body having an interior surface which is threaded or otherwise shaped at each of a pair of opposite open ends for receiving therein the threaded exterior surfaces of the narrow necks of the inverted and upright containers. A problem appears to exist, however, with these devices in that the liquid draining from the inverted container may run between the threads of the device and the narrow neck of the upright container and create an external mess.
Consequently, a need remains for a device by which any remaining liquid in one narrow neck container can be drained into another like container without creating the above mentioned external mess.